30 social media marketing ideas from big brands

Several weeks ago I was talking to a friend who runs a small e-shop. She and her assistant run social media themselves, as they can’t allow a social media manager, and, frankly speaking, they don’t need one, as their potential audience is not so wide, and the girls are doing a good job. But my friend complained that she run out of ideas.

Indeed, marketers say that we should give our audience something useful, entertaining, something they’ll love or enjoy, something that solves their problems and makes their life better.

What if you’re stuck with content ideas? Really, can you name at least ten unique social media posting types apart from sharing shop news and discounts, gift cards, blog posts and items you want to promote?

To help you with that, I picked 30 ideas for social media posts that proved to be working as big e-commerce brands used them in their social media campaigns. So whenever you run out of topics, you just open this post and browse through to get some inspiration.

1. Show exclusive/funny/unique items

This Amazon post with the link to a selfie mirror is the point where you know how to tease your audience. The proof is the number of ironic comments. But should you really post only ‘OMG that’s cute’ items? Besides, this particular thing is a great funny present. The result is: comments, shares, likes, traffic and engagement. People engage, express their feelings – that’s what you want.

If you don’t have selfie mirrors, or Sheldon T-shirts, or super cute bright pink mp3 players encrusted with Swarovski, or any other unusual or fun items, test whether your audience likes it. Post links to such items relevant to your store and ask your followers whether they would buy it. By their reaction you can judge whether you should add a couple of fun items to your inventory.

2. Ask a question

But asking questions is an art too. What I love about this Etsy post:

It’s unique – and people believe the company cared because they made a special photo for the post;

The question is relevant, it’s not too simple and does not look like ‘we posted a question because we were told to do so’;

The question is of great use for readers, because they can share nice experience and use this information while shopping.

Remember, asking a question means engagement. I saw brands like Nordstrom commenting each and every reply for ‘What’s your signature perfume?’, and that’s fantastic. If you can’t afford commenting each reply, make sure you at least like/fav it, or consider reacting at the most funny or friendly comments. Make your question look like you do care what people answer. And do care, please.

3. Reshare customers’ posts

It’s not a big reveal that customers share purchases on their social media accounts. And you’re lucky to have instruments to track these posts. Resharing such content kills two birds. First of all, you show that real people trust you, buy from you and are thankful enough to show it. Secondly, you show that you care and are thankful for mentioning.

Stick to the happy medium. Make sure you don’t overboast: sharing these posts once or maximum twice a month will be okay, but barely more.

4. Be creative

I absolutely adore this small video from Gap: it’s cute (forgive me this triviality) and it’s a great idea to combine the worldwide trend on drones with apparel ads. And it’s a potentially viral thing.

Be creative! Show uncommon usage of your goods. Remember the viral video on how to peel a bucket of potatoes with a drill? Such a thing could be a perfect brand video too.

5. Don’t forget national days and holidays

Macy’s not only thanked the veterans, but also shared a link to a charity organization website, where you can donate to help those who served for their country and now are in need. As Macy’s has about 15 billion likes on Facebook, it’s a real instrument of help.

People see hundreds of congrats posts on special days, and you don’t want to become food for fish. Make your greetings hearty, show that you care and raise people to care too.

6. Sneak Peeks

Macy’s created a Black Friday Sneak Peek board so the customers can choose items they want to buy in advance. It’s a great way to let shoppers plan their budget and have more satisfaction from shopping. When Black Friday comes, they won’t be looking through all the categories and will go straight to the items they wanted.

7. ‘How to choose’ advice

1. It’s evergreen content, and you can repost it from time to time, which also saves your own time spent on social media posting;

2. It’s the content that raise your customers’ satisfaction. By learning how to choose items properly customers eventually make better choices, which makes them happier.

See how Macy’s presents short how to choose videos on their YouTube channels:

Educate your customers. If someone drops at your web store in search of a standing desk and having no idea how to pick one, don’t let him leave your site like that, don’t let him go to your competitors, hook him up with a how-to-choose instruction and then suggest going to the category page and making a choice.

8. Be different when sharing products

Sure, the most of the posts by retailers are showing items available at the moment. But everybody in retail social media is doing that, and you have to stand out of the crowd.

Have a look at the strategy Nordstrom is using on their social media accounts. You can just share a link to the item and add its name or even price. Or you can do something like this:

Be creative when it comes to sharing your products on your social media accounts. Remember that there are thousands of retailers using social media, and you want your posts to show up. For example, think of unusual pics and catchy lines. And don’t forget to provide consultations in comments if there are any questions.

9. Connect with bloggers

Here’s the example: H&M retweeted a blogger’s tweet featuring their brand. There are plenty of ways you can build relationships with bloggers, and the first step is to share relevant posts created by bloggers from your niche.

Think how you can connect with bloggers. The simplest way is to share articles by bloggers of your niche, as they tend to produce high quality, lengthy or useful content that is closer to your audience in comparison with branded content marketing. This collaboration with bloggers, which are basically customers, but with a louder voice, makes your brand more human.

10. Make use of others’ content

Who says you can post your content only? If someone does, he’s wrong. There are powerful content producers in almost every niche. They want you to share their content, you want quality content, and that’s the deal. Make sure you’ve subscribed to big content oriented resources so you don’t miss any valuable articles you can repost on your social media channels. See how 6pm.com reposted a Buzzfeed video on their page:

Don’t join those who are afraid to post anything but their links and to lose traffic. Your main aim is to give value to your readers, and if you can do it with the help of other content producers, do it.

11. Host a Twitter chat

Twitter chats are a really nice opportunity to speak to your customers directly. See how Sears is doing it, and by clicking the hashtag you’ll see the rest of the tweets they had to conduct the chat.

Q1: We’re sure you have started planning the menu for Thanksgiving, but do you plan your outfit ahead of time? #HolidayFashion

Here are a couple of tips you could use to host a Twitter chat with your subscribers:

announce the time and date in advance;

use a special hashtag;

ask meaningful questions, so that your readers can get value from each others’ replies;

reply! Always reply something to support the talk.

12. Show how you work

Showing what’s inside your company is a good step to transparency, and it certainly drives attention. Just remember how Buffer went famous for their almost radical transparency. Of course, you don’t need to do disclose your salaries like Buffer did, but showing small things about your work makes your brand look much better. To prove that, here’s a short video about how Overstock employees are using standing desks:

Show how your store works: processing orders and support tickets, some pics inside and outside the office, what your employees are doing Friday nights. Maybe you’ll even find new employees in this way!

13. Branding

This is a great viral pic made by Zappos customer, but it also could be made by the brand itself.

14. Inspire

In fact, inspiration is one of the corner stones of retail social media. The way you do it 100% depends on your audience. Have a look at the example by bodybuilding.com. Here’s why it’s the right message for their followers: it’s pushing you. Fitness and bodybuilding are all about achieving aims and hard work. The pic shows something that the readers are likely to strive for, in this particular case – a powerful, strong and magnificent body; it shows how you can be happy with the process itself. Thus, this kind of inspiration message will work for fitness people and certainly won’t work for, say, mothercare.com.

Inform your subscribers about how and when you work during holidays. Additional information on order processing and shipment is also a good idea. This helps your customers plan shopping ahead and reduces support tickets amount as people will be aware of any delays.

18. Consulting

Barnes & Noble announced a session of gift tips, and if you go to the hashtag, you’ll see that they actually give advice on presents.

Some retailers add gift finders onto their website, but you can also help customers choose presents for their dearest and nearest on social media. Make sure tips are given by a skilled employee to avoid cases =)

19. Tips on product usage

The next step of the how to choose articles are post ideas on product usage. Here’s a post from cars.com on why not all the windows of the car get condensation of them.

Tell customers about how to take care of the products purchased, how to mend and repair them, and how to deal with problems that can arise during product usage period. Such posts are an anchor that tie your customers to your social media accounts even after they purchase.

Timing is the key factor for trends. The best time is to post when everybody is still excited about what’s going on but is not tired yet. For example, an ice bucket challenge in December 2014 would be mostly annoying than exciting.

21. New arrivals

Use separate albums for new arrivals and regularly update them with new collections, like J.Crew does.

22. How it’s made

If you haven’t heard that storytelling is the new black, it’s time to jump into the trend. Brands have stories, products have stories, think about telling them to the audience.Maybe the brand will be interested in helping you put the tale together?

23. Puzzles and quizzes

Gamification, social media and e-commerce are the side of the same cube. See how Bed, Bath & Beyond is entertaining their followers:

25. Ask for impressions

Do your investigation homework before posting to make sure your questions are relevant and timely.

26. Write about industry fans

Does your niche have fans? Maybe they are involved into community and meet each other regularly, maybe they have Google Hangouts, or webinars, or they just chat on subject forums, or probably they organize events and campaigns? Whatever they’re doing, it’s a good thing to talk about enthusiasts in public. Look how AbeBooks tells a story about a bookclub:

27. Educate

From half-funny to serious educational articles and tips, this kind of social media posts is always a win. This is the straight value you’re giving to your customers.If you can’t handle this post category yourself, ask an expert, and he’ll be delighted to get featured on your social media channels.

28. Memes

I often hear that memes are the last thing you want to post on e-commerce social media accounts. And I believe that’s not true – here’s why. If you’re doing social media marketing in e-commerce or in any other field, there can’t be too simple, too stupid, too funny content. Or content not serious enough. See how Petsmart is using memes on their Instagram account:

The key point is not what you post. It’s how it’s working for your audience.And if memes are working for your customers, if they post it on their personal social media accounts, it’s likely a wise strategy will work for your brand.

29. Geek stuff

Sweetwater posted a funny and geeky picture, that basically works just like any other geek stuff: there can’t be too much of quality products!

Just a reminder that microphone selection and proper placement are crucial for getting a good snare sound. pic.twitter.com/adlf5pJyaI

Geeks and fans are a very special group of people, and it’s vital to connect with them and support them via social media. These people tend to buy more, their average check is likely to be higher, and, what is more important, they are usually involved into communities, being a loud megaphone for your brand, no matter what your reputation is. Endorse them, nurture them and give them stuff they like and value, including specific irony, humor and insider talks.

30. Facts about brands

Jo-Ann Stores shared an update on Hello Kitty Anniversary, and you can use this content idea in your e-commerce social media strategy.

Share important or valuable news about brands that you’re selling or in which your audience can be interested in. This can refer to anniversaries, brand new or innovative releases, big updates or anything that concerns customers in any way.

That’s a wrap for today, and I hope you’ve found these social media content ideas useful for your e-commerce business. Should you have any questions or additions, please welcome to the comments section.

About The Author

Ksenia is a devoted marketer with special love to blogging. She believes that content with several pinches of SEO and social can be a brilliant daily special. When she’s not working on Amasty updates and blog posts, Ksenia runs a blog on movies and books and helps animal shelters.

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Leila

Thanks for the article, I found some useful tips. My question is – do you have any ideas for inspiration for an office chairs shop? I consider it to be a very boring industry and honestly speaking it is hard to find any memes, or fun stuff, or quotes, or inspirational stuff for the market. Thank you in advance.

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4 years ago

Ksenia Dobreva

Hi Leila, thanks for reading and for your comment!

First of all, it depends on your audience. Are they individuals or companies/people responsible for supplies at companies? I don’t think you can use any of these social media post ideas for the second variant, but when it concerns the first variant, you could use something like that: office jokes (!), tips on sitting and its impact on health, choosing the best chair, office games (like chair rides and stuff). Did you look at what your competitors are doing? Hope that helps.

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4 years ago

Kristi Guerrero

Wow!!! An excellent article to go through. What about Link feeds and RSS feeds?

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4 years ago

Ksenia Dobreva

Thanks!
Not sure what do you mean – links from these brands, or what?

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4 years ago

Maria

Awesome post Ksenia- Tips are great but from my personal experience I just find it hard to keep up the momentum. I deal with SEO and I know i should focus on social work but rarely seeing results means the social stuff just falls to the bottom of the pile over and over again! I’ve read that Facebook is primarily shifting towards being a paid platform- is this true? Do those of us with no budget stand a chance?

Reply

3 years ago

Ksenia Dobreva

Hey Maria, thanks for commenting! And I perfectly understand your concerns here, I’ve worked with more focus on social media before and see what you’re talking about. Yes, motion is the nature of social media, and we have to cope with it, but in return it also gives us what we can’t have through other channels of communication. As far as paid marketing is concerned, indeed, it looks like Facebook is secretly pushing companies to pay more, and I can guess it can be their goal partially, but that’s not their primary aim, as their algos are focused on saving… Read more »

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3 years ago

Hoffman

Thanks for the article its really helpful, I am from Rwanda and This is one of what I need in my online marketing business, I enjoyed from line one.

Thanks Ksenia

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3 years ago

Nic

Thanks Ksenia for a very well done write up. Definitely given me some very helpful hints with regard to social media marketing. However, do you have advice for themed restaurants Facebook content? Pumping out quality content on a frequent and regular basis with a branding restraint seems like a tough cookie to crack. Any tips on content? It will be much appreciated!

Nic

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3 years ago

Ksenia Dobreva

Hey Nic, thanks for reading and commenting. I’m glad the article was helpful for you. As for you question, of course, I could give better advice if I knew the theme of the restaurant and a little bit more information about its menu, history, and such. But I’ll try to give you some social media ideas as well. – tell people about the food you make. The history of recipes, fun facts about ingredients, show the process of cooking. Make sure you have plenty of high quality pictures, from my experience they play a huge role when it comes to… Read more »

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3 years ago

Ella Hayes

Hi dear, I am Ella Hayes. Thanks for sharing your great article. I think E-commerce Marketing is the process of driving sales by raising awareness about an online store’s brand and product offerings. You can also say that it’s an online shopping, is becoming more widespread as more consumers look to the Internet for purchasing decisions. Consumers can find a wider variety of goods, often at more competitive prices, than they would at their local brick and mortar retailers.